“The sport is gaining in popularity at the age-group level,” said Yong Wee after announcing details of the 7th Milo National Junior Wushu Championships, which will be held in Malacca from June 2-4.

“It’s time to include wushu in the national schools’ sports calendar. I believe it will greatly help in the development of the sports.”

The championships in Malacca at the Pay Fong High School will see more than 200 exponents from 13 states in the fray.

“There will be three age-group of competitions for both boys and girls and we are happy to note that most of the states will compete in all the categories,” said Yong Wee after receiving a sponsorship mock cheque from Nestle Malaysia.

The Group A competitions are for exponents between the ages of 15 and 18.

Group B are for the 12-14 age-group while Group C features exponents in the 9-11 age-group.

In last year’s championships in Putrajaya, Negri Sembilan won 19 gold medals to emerge as the overall champions. Malacca were the runners-up with 15 gold medals while Sarawak took third place with six gold medals.

At the same function, the MWF also announced their team for the fifth Asian junior championships in Macau from June 5-10.

At the last championships in South Korea, Malaysians had a medal haul of 3-2-3 and Yong Wee said that their target was to at least maintain the achievement.

“We are well prepared and I feel confident that we can come back with better results. Three of our 10 exponents are in full-time training in China.,” he said.

Later, the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) secretary general, Datuk Sieh Kok Chi, handed over the national flag to team manager Wong Kim Swee.